Deciding on Fieldwork Questions Risk assessment Key Terms

Physical Fieldwork Questions Risk of powerful All wore wellies and were told not to Enquiry The question we were trying to answer by
River currents water and risk of go in deep parks of the river. Stay in Question doing the fieldwork.
• How do river characteristics change downstream? slipping over. groups.
• How does longshore drift affect beach profiles? Data collection The way in which we collected the data. EG.
• What impact is erosion having at _________? Danger of falling over All wearing sensible footwear. Not methods Measuring width, depth and velocity.
• Is flood management effective at _________? due to uneven running and walking carefully over
• Does tourism has a positive impact on _________? Uneven ground Data The type of graphs we used to present the data.
footpaths. large rocks.
presentation EG. Bar, scatter, maps etc.
Human Fieldwork Questions methods
Wet weather is Students advised to bring plenty of
• Has regeneration being successful in _________? Accurate When data is collected in the correct way that
dangerous due to water and sun cream if the weather
• How does environmental quality vary in ________? conclusions make what we find to be trustworthy.
slippery groynes etc. forecast is hot. If the weather forecast
• How is traffic managed in _________? Weather
Hot weather also is wet, students are advised to bring Reliable When there is enough data collected in an
• Do science parks have a positive impact in _________?
poses the risk of appropriate clothing and footwear. conclusions accurate way so we can trust the results.
• Is there economic inequality between _______ and ________?
dehydration.
Types of data Evaluating data collection methods
Getting lost in new Staying in groups. Carrying a phone
Unfamiliar environments. and a map in case you do get lost. Advantages Disadvantages
Primary Data Secondary Data
areas
Data you collect yourself Data collected by someone
else Data is easy to Current can make
River Data
Getting ran over by Use pedestrian crossings only when compare downstream collection inaccurate
• River depth / width / • Weather data Traffic
vehicles. crossing the road.
velocity / discharge • Erosion rates See impacts of Bias in selecting pebbles
Pebble data
• Pebble size / beach • OS maps – relief of the erosion. to measure
PHYS
gradient / pebble land / cliff locations
roughness Unfamiliar Fieldwork Questionnai
re
Understand people’s
opinions
Timely to analyse
People may lie
• Photographs
Sampling Strategies
• Environmental • Census data Gain info on a wide Subjective – based on
Env Quality
quality survey • House price data Advantages Disadvantages variety of factors. your opinion so can be
Survey
• Questionnaires • Crime statistics Number is easy to bias.
HUM • Interviews • OS map – locations of Random Sampling • Not bias – each site • Sites can get clustered compare scores.
• Traffic counts / services / houses / roads (Randomly choosing has an equal chance together meaning data
sites to collect data) of being picked. collection isn’t Counts Understand how busy Can easily miscount by
Pedestrian counts / buildings
• Photographs • Can easily be done representative (Traffic / / popular an area is. mistake if an area is
with a large area • May lead to sites that pedestrian) really busy
Types of data are inaccessible

Quantitative Data Qualitative Data Improving data collection methods

Data that is statistical / Data that is descriptive Systematic Sampling • Gives a good • Can be time consuming
Make it ACCURATE & RELIABLE Make it REPRESENTATIVE
numbers (picking sites every representation of an • Can be bias as not all
(Enough data that we can trust (Enquiry covers the whole area
__ metres) area. sites have an equal
• River depth / width / • Photographs what we find out) and not just a small part)
• Easier to do than chance of being
velocity / discharge • Pebble roughness random sampling selected. • Collect more data and • Collect data at more sites to
• Pebble size / beach • OS maps • May lead to sites that generate an average – cover a larger area –
PHYS
gradient are inaccessible reduce the risk of anomalies. reduces the risk of
• Weather data • Ask a wider variety of anomalies.
• Erosion rates Stratified Sampling • Flexible – fits with a • Not suitable for questions on a • Ask a lots of different
(picking sites by lot of different something like a questionnaire. people for a questionnaire
• Environmental quality • Interviews topic) enquiries questionnaire
survey • Questionnaires • If something is opinion to cover all ages / genders /
• Gives a good • Could lead to bias from based, consulting with other ethnicities etc.
• Traffic counts • OS maps comparison of the person picking the
HUM people to reduce bias. • Collect data at different
• Pedestrian counts • Photographs different areas. (Eg. sites
• House price data • Collect data at different times of day / year /
Upper, middle and times of day / year / weather conditions.
• Crime statistics lower course) weather conditions.
 ANALYSING DATA Bar Chart / Histograms Line Graph Pictogram

Add all data together and divide by the number Bar charts show continuous data whereas Line graph shows continuous data to show A way of presenting data using symbols.
Mean
of values. histograms show continuous data. changes over time. There is always a dependent
(the variable that isn’t changed by other variables
Put the data in numerical order and find the <- Bar chart EG. time) and an independent variable (the
Median
middle number. variable that is changed by other variables (EG.
Most common number. The number of cars on the road).
Mode

Range Highest number minus the smallest number.

Upper quartile value minus the lower quartile

Interquartile value.
Range More accurate than the range as it removes Histogram ->
the extreme values.
Advantages: Disadvantages:
WHY? Easy to interpret / see Not suitable for
+ Averages can remove the risk of anomalies skewing the data. trends. continuous data.
+ Easily see a general trend / what is most common in the data.
+ Easily compare changes between areas. Pie Chart
Advantages: Disadvantages: Advantages: Disadvantages:
Choropleth Map Can see a clear Does show the causes Can show multiple sets If too much data is Divided circle useful for presenting a quantity that
comparison / trend. of trends. of data. plotted – hard to read. can be divided in to parts.
Uses different shades of colour / symbols to display different
amounts.
Unfamiliar Fieldwork
Dispersion Graphs Scatter Graphs

Takes a set of data and allows you to see if the Investigated a link between 2 sets of data.
Advantages: Disadvantages: data is grouped together or very different.
Easy to spot general trends. Not useful for showing total values
Isoline map
Advantages: Disadvantages:
Lines that join up values of the same value. (EG. Contour lines)
Good to display parts Can not be used to
of a whole. show trends.
Divided Bar Chart

Advantages: Disadvantages: Columns of bar charts are sub-divided based on

Advantages: Disadvantages: Can draw a LOBF to Analysis of the the information being displayed.
Advantages: Disadvantages:
Can easily spot Can be time see if there is correlation can be
Can easily compare areas of Can be difficult to read if lines
anomalies in data. consuming to analyse. correlation. subjective.
equal value. are close together.
Dot Maps / Proportional Symbol Maps Flow Line / Desire Line Maps

Dot maps show 1 dot per value. Proportional symbols are circles / symbols drawn at Flow lines show movement of something from one place to another. Desire lines shows
different sizes to represent different values. a line to show how places are connected.

Advantages: Disadvantages:
Advantages: Disadvantages: Advantages: Disadvantages: Easy to see trends in Requires additional
Easy to interpret general trends. Clustering can make them hard to read. Shows connections between places. Overlapping makes it hard to read. large sets of data. explanation.